Look Who's Talking: Can More Be Done to Foster Unity between Jews and Muslims, Asks Rachel Shabi

Shabi, Rachel, New Statesman (1996)

We know that a racist far right is rising across Europe. We know that it is doing so directly, through elections, and covertly, by pushing a hateful doctrine into national conversations. We also know that far-right politics has shape-shifted; it isn't OK to be showily anti-Semitic and so the focus has moved to Muslims, who, apparently, are a more acceptable target for scape goating and abuse.

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Jews and Muslims would no doubt benefit from uniting against this threat. But in the UK that isn't happening enough, and not enough of what does take place is on a large scale. Ask why not and the obvious answer is that deep affiliations to opposing sides in the politics of the Middle East cause rifts between British Jews and Muslims, making the very thought of unity unpalatable. One perennial hold-up of the Israel-Palestine conflict also sours Muslim-Jewish relations in Britain: a failure of leadership to step up, or to act with courage.

But let's not charge in with negative assessments. There are numerous healthy ventures we just don't hear much about them, partly because "Muslims and Jews get along" isn't a story deemed to be worth writing at the moment.

"It is not bleak, empty and hopeless by any means," says Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi of the Assembly of Masorti Synagogues. "There is awareness that racism is the enemy of both and there is alertness to Muslim-Jewish relations, to the huge importance of this work."

This awareness shows up in pockets across the country, at Muslim-Jewish forums and antiracism conferences, through university campus activities and various other projects - the joint-faith creative crews Alif-Aleph and Muju, or the Joseph Interfaith Foundation and dialogue group, or the Coexistence Trust, which works with Jewish and Muslim students. It shows up when Muslim and Jewish groups work together over challenges such as security around religious venues, or dietary requirements - in the case of halal/kosher meat, there is unity in the face of potential bans. It shows up when English Defence League rallies in the East End of London are faced down by Muslims and Jews marching together, as happened in September last year. And it was there in the 2010 UK elections, when multi-faith groups urged caution over the far right.

Raw emotion

The biggest block to connection is the Israel-Palestine conflict such an emotional, identity-defining issue that, as one interfaith worker put it, "people aren't prepared to park it". Campaigners trying to get the two groups together, however, say that it must be parked - not ignored (that is impossible) and not proscribed (as some people are attempting to insist happens on UK campuses), but set aside.

"We can't treat a whole group of people on the basis of something that is happening elsewhere, crucial though that is," says Julie Siddiqi, of the Islamic Society of Britain. "Our focus has to be Britain: this is our home; how do we make it better?"

If Muslim and Jewish groups are to succeed in tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia together, anti-Israel or anti-Zionist views cannot be dismissed automatically as anti-Semitic. To do so undermines attempts at joint discussion.

"Almost invariably, you can tell when anti-Zionism is becoming and-Semitic because you will find the usual tropes of anti-Semitism," says Antony Lerman, a British writer and former director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. "You can have a fine ear to that and make a logical case against it." Lerman believes that laying down such ground rules may help counter a growing tendency among British Jews and their community leadership to define anti-Zionism as necessarily anti-Jewish.

Jewish leadership and media in the UK have stalled matters further by attempting to police the conversation. The Jewish Chronicle last year lambasted both a liberal rabbi and a Jewish family foundation for talking to Muslims it deemed extremist. …

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